An absorbent article such as a disposable diaper (for both children and adults), a sanitary napkin, an incontinence product, or training pants is an article for absorbing a body fluid such as urine excreted from a wearer into an absorber employing a super absorbent polymer (hereinafter, may also be referred to as “SAP”).
Conventionally, in order to prevent an absorbent article from getting loose to be detached or slipping off from the body of the wearer, various structures have been considered. This problem, however, occurs frequently. Such loosening or slipping off constitutes one of the main causes of leakage at an early stage of wearing. Further, it also leads to the problem of wearing comfort and outward appearance during use being impaired.
Such loosening or slipping off is caused, for example, by a change in the positional relationship between the body of the wearer and the absorbent article due to the breathing of the wearer, a change in his/her position, movement, etc., or deformation of the absorbent article; or a downward force due to a weight load generated when the absorbent article receives human wastes (urine, feces, etc.)
Conventionally, as a means for preventing such loosening and slipping off, in order to hold the absorbent article in intimate contact with the body of the wearer, there has been adopted a method in which an elastic member called waist gather or leg gather (e.g., gusset gather, inner gather, or outer gather) is provided at an edge of the waist part or the crotch part of the absorbent article.
However, it has been impossible to prevent loosening or slipping off to a sufficient degree by such the method.
In view of this, various methods have been proposed.
For example, Patent Documents 1 and 2, proposed by the inventors of the present invention, describe a method according to which the front body part and the rear body part of a tapeless type (shorts type) absorbent article are connected by an elastic member in the vicinity of the waist part or the leg holes.
Further, Patent Documents 3 through 5, proposed by the inventors of the present invention, describe a method according to which an elastic member functioning as a leg gather is provided on the inner side of the leg hole portions of the absorbent article.
Patent Document 1: JP 6-66653 U
Patent Document 2: JP 6-65409 U
Patent Document 3: JP 7-96004 A
Patent Document 4: JP 8-56985 A
Patent Document 5: JP 8-56986 A